Cheaper Tesla Model 3.
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A few months ago, we saw a report from Reuters claiming Tesla had abandoned work on a smaller all-new cheaper model.
Which disappointed the millions of Tesla fans eagerly awaiting that all-new small Tesla everyone had been talking about for years. Crazy Elon Musk quickly responded by setting up an event to unveil the all-new self-driving model in August. Then canceling it and pushed it to October. He also mentioned Tesla would indeed be coming with new cheaper models. Before the end of the year!
He even said they would use a mix of the existing platform and the future one that was being developed for the smaller car. Which of course doesn’t really make sense. What does make sense is offering cheaper versions of the existing models. Which is the cheapest and fastest way to offer a “cheaper Tesla”.
And here are the results. A new discontented Model 3. The new Model just went on sale in Mexico, where it costs about $4000 less than the current Model 3. This would mean a $35,000 Tesla Model 3 in the US.
In that cheaper Model, you basically don’t get the upgrades that came to the Model 3 a few months ago. Like the rear screen, or cooling seats and ambient lighting is white only. Heated seats are not available either.
And of course, the main difference is the cloth interior. Which is just fine, however, it is only available in dark grey. For that true rental car look and feel.
All the exterior colors are still available and the specs are the same. Including the EV range.
It seems very strange that Tesla is able to lower the price by that much with these few changes. Most of these seem minor. The glass roof is still there as well as the 9-speaker system. It is still a pretty loaded car. it is hard to believe the features removed were worth $4000.
On the other hand, you do have a $35,000 Tesla Model 3. One that gets the same 272-mile range and could cost much less after incentives.
Musk is eccentric rather than crazy. As far as the Model 3 for $35,000 that might be for other markets like Mexico. Musk and his designer corrected the press statement that they were wrong about the cancelation of the smaller model.
Musk is a dingbat rather than eccentric. These changes do not total even a couple of thousand, let alone 4 thousand. The price drop mostly reflects a cut into the company’s profit margins on this car in an effort to keep the Chinese EV makers who seem to be quite active in getting into the Mexican market. The funny thing is that I simply do not see where they think this market is. Average price of a new mid size car in Mexico is $17k. The Mexican economy is doing quite good, but even still, the wages in Mexico make any EV, even these cheaper ones, quite expensive. Seems to keep as though Tesla and the Chinese are fighting for a very small market.
Musk is no dingbat; he came here with basically nothing and became a billionaire. We are the joke in comparison.